Bobby of the Labrador eBook

“Jumped in to save you? My partner a hero,
too! I knew it was in him, though. You’re
a pair of the bravest chaps I ever knew, and I’m
proud of you both,” and Skipper Ed’s voice
sounded strange and choky.

“Oh, it was nothing for me to do! I was
safe on the end of the line! I was sure of getting
out—­but Jimmy!”

“Here,” said Skipper Ed, “is some
fine tender seal meat and a hard biscuit. Drink
down this hot tea. It’s good for you.
And stop talking. I know what you did, you young
husky.”

Bobby laughed, and sipped the steaming tea.

Jimmy always insisted that he would have gone into
the water anyhow when the ice turned over, and therefore
had no choice, and deserved no credit for what he
did, but that Bobby did a very brave act. And
Bobby insisted that Jimmy had risked his life to save
his, and was the bravest chap in the world. And
Skipper Ed insisted that both lads were wonderful heroes.
So it comes about that you and I will have to decide
for ourselves which was right, and who was the hero.

CHAPTER XXII

A STORM AND A CATASTROPHE

True to his promise, Bobby was up the next morning
bright and early, and awoke Skipper Ed as he moved
about, lighting the lamp and hanging the kettle of
snow to melt for tea, and the kettle containing cooked
seal meat, to thaw, for it had frozen hard in the
night. Then, while he waited for these to heat,
he crawled back into his sleeping bag.

“How are you feeling after your Arctic dip?”
inquired Skipper Ed.

“As fine as could be!” answered Bobby.
“My fingers were nipped a little, and they’re
a bit numb. That’s the only way I’d
know, from the way I feel, that I’d been in
the water.”

“You’re a regular tough young husky!”
declared Skipper Ed. “But it was a narrow
escape, and we can thank God for the deliverance of
you two chaps. You mustn’t take those risks
again. It’s tempting Providence.”

“Why, I didn’t think we were careless,”
said Bobby. “It was the sort of thing that
is always likely to happen.”

Jimmy lifted his head.

“Hello!” drowsily. “Is it time
to get up? I’ve been sleeping like a stone.”

“It isn’t time for you to get up,”
cautioned Skipper Ed. “You stay right where
you are today.”

“I’m all right, Partner!” Jimmy
declared.

“Well, you’ve got to demonstrate it.
We don’t want any pneumonia cases on our hands.
Just draw some long breaths, and punch yourself, and
see how you feel.”

“I feel fine,” insisted Jimmy, after some
deep breaths and several self-inflicted punches.
“It doesn’t hurt a bit to breathe, and
I don’t feel lame anywhere. The only place
I feel bad is in my stomach, and that’s just
shouting for grub.”

“Very well,” laughed Skipper Ed, “that
kind of an ache we can cure with boiled seal and hardtack.”

And so, indeed, it proved. Their hardihood, brought
about by a life of exposure to the elements, and their
constitutions, made strong as iron by life and experience
in the open, withstood the shock, and, none the worse
for their experience, and passing it by as an incident
of the day’s work, they resumed the hunt with
Skipper Ed.